Betting is done during betting intervals. In five card draw, their is one betting interval after all five cards have been dealt to each player, and another after the dealer has exchanged any cards. The betting round then commences with the one player with the right (or duty) to make the first bet. This is usually the player to the left of the dealer. The player then puts his bet into the center of the table while announcing the bet. Betting then proceeds clockwise around the table with each player doing one of the following:
The player forfeits the hand, and any chips previously put into the pot. The chips will eventually go to the winner of the pot. This is called ``passing''.
The player puts in exactly enough chips to ``match'' the current bet in the pot - such that he has put in the same as the greatest number of chips put into the pot by another player. This is called ``staying in''
The player, in addition to putting in enough chips to call or ``stay in'', increases his contribution by an amount which he announces as his raise. Every other player must then match this raise to stay in.
The betting continues, as described above, until all bets have equalized, or rather until every player has put the same amount of chips into the pot (or passed). The betting interval is then said to be concluded.
If the first better chooses not to make an additional pot contribution then this is called a check. Each player may also check, having the effect of not raising the value of the pot during the current betting interval.
Most poker games are played with a limit on the number of chips bet at once. This limit is usually between five and ten chips.
One may play with different bet limits for each player. How this occurs is that the maximum bet limit for a given player is how many chips they have on the table. When betting, a main pot is used to contain those chips which are equally representative of all remaining players in the game. Players may bet above and beyond this limit in side pots against other players in the game. The winner then takes the main pot, and any additional side pots which the winner was represented in.